The International Rescue Committee places Sudan first in the 2026 Emergency Watchlist.

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The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has placed Sudan at the top of its annual Emergency Watchlist for 2026, meaning that the current crisis could further escalate rapidly. It’s the third year in a row that Sudan is assigned this position. The data collected by the IRC accurately explains why: 67% of the population (33.7 million people out of 50.4 million of the total population) is in humanitarian need; between October 2025 and January 2026, 19.2 million people faced IPC3+ levels of food insecurity, while 207,000 are currently in catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC5). In addition to this, 12.5 million people have been displaced since April 2023, when the conflict started, “with widespread mass killings and rapes, and ethnically motivated violence”. 

Since the beginning of the conflict, it’s estimated that 150,000 people have been killed, but this number is probably an underestimation of the extent of the conflict.

In such a context, diseases like cholera and measles, once preventable, are now spreading as well: the former, in particular, has already killed more than 2,500 people and affected over 100,000, meaning that there is a sanitary crisis in the country. 

However, the conflicts happening throughout the country did not stop the gold trade: Sudan is still exporting its main material resource, “which has devastating impacts on civilians”. As stated by the International Rescue Committee, this means that the warning parties and their international backers still benefit from this humanitarian crisis, which increasingly appears driven by economic profit, besides the struggle for power of the involved parties. 

Moreover, while the ongoing humanitarian crisis intensifies, global support, particularly international aid, is shrinking, as the international system appears increasingly unstable.

Consequently, delivering humanitarian aid has become more challenging, and humanitarian workers and volunteers face numerous risks working in the region. As reported by Human Rights Watch, both parties, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), “have violently attacked, harassed, and unlawfully detained local volunteers”. Indeed, the attacks against them in Sudan account for 12% of total attacks against aid workers globally in 2025. 

Despite this, the International Rescue Committee is currently providing support in several Sudanese states, such as Blue Nile, Gedaref, Khartoum, River Nile, South Kordofan, and White Nile states. 

The United Nations is also present on the territory, delivering food assistance, nutrition support and services, health support, and various forms of humanitarian assistance. In addition to this, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is working with the neighboring countries to manage the growing influx of Sudanese refugees, often entering countries already suffering from internal stability or other issues, like South Sudan.  

Moreover, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, is scheduled to visit Sudan from 14 January to 18 January 2026: “During the visit, the UN Human Rights Chief is scheduled to meet with authorities in Port Sudan, as well as civil society representatives and the UN Country Team”. Türk will also visit some of the regions most harshly hit by the conflict, such as Darfur and Kordofan.

written by Alice Scotti